Guide to Applying for an iOS Push Certificate and Configuring APNs Bulk Push

To add push messaging to an iOS app, you first need an APNs push certificate, and then a push channel that can manage device tokens and support bulk sending — in AppUploader, this entire set is an operations push platform independent of App Store Connect, with four tabs: Push Channels, Device Library, Send, and History.

Step 1: Issue an APNs Push Certificate

Open the “Certificates” page:

1. Click “New Certificate” and select the push certificate type.
2. Select the Bundle ID to bind (if you don’t have one yet, register it on the “Bundle ID” page first).
3. Fill in the certificate name and email, and set a .p12 protection password (the server does not store it, so keep it safe).
4. We recommend enabling “Cloud Backup”, so that you can use it directly on the push page later without transferring files back and forth.
5. After submission, the push certificate is issued.

A push certificate is deployed on the push server and used exclusively for the APNs channel; it is not used to sign and compile the app itself, which is where it differs from a signing certificate.

Step 2: Create a Push Channel and Get the App Key

Open the “Push Channels” tab on the “Push” page:

1. Click “New Channel”.
2. Select the APNs push certificate issued in the previous step.
3. Enter the export password of the certificate’s .p12 (if the certificate has already been backed up to the cloud, entering the password is enough to retrieve the private key).
4. Fill in the channel name (for example, “Marketing Push”) and select the environment (Production / Sandbox — Sandbox is usually used during development and debugging).
5. After submission the channel is created and you get an App Key; in “Integration Code” you can find the integration instructions for developers.

Step 3: Have the App Report the Device Token

Following the guidance in the “Device Integration Instructions”, ask the app developer to add Push Notifications under Signing & Capabilities in Xcode and put the sample method into the AppDelegate, so that the app calls the reporting API after obtaining the APNs token. Devices that report successfully automatically appear in the “Device Library” tab, where you can search by note/token/tag, and also manually add device tokens or edit tags. During testing, choose the LAN address where the phone is located, and make sure the phone and your computer are on the same Wi-Fi.

Step 4: Compose and Send a Notification

On the “Send” tab:

1. Select the push channel to use.
2. Fill in the title, content, sound (default alert/silent) and badge number; when you need finer control, switch to “Advanced Mode” to edit the raw JSON Payload directly.
3. Choose the send target: all devices / by tag / specific devices.
4. After confirming the number of valid devices the notification will be sent to, click “Send Now”; when it finishes, the number of successful/failed devices is displayed.

Step 5: View Delivery Results

The “History” tab records the time, content, target and result of each send. Click “Details” to see the per-device delivery report (success/failed/delivered and the failure reason); you can also “Resend” a history entry directly.

One Thing to Note

Deleting a push channel also deletes the device library and send history under that channel, and the App Key becomes invalid immediately. This operation cannot be undone, so if you only want to pause pushing, do not delete the channel.